Denmark 3-1 USA: Danes Come from Behind to Sink the Americans

Match: Denmark vs USA
Occasion: Friendly Match
Location: [NRGi Park] , Aarhus
Referee: Craig Thompson (SCO)

It was a night where both coaches chose to experiment with their squads. Having already qualified for the World Cup, key players were excused as fringe players and youngsters were given their chance to prove themselves.

While experienced veterans Tomasson, Jørgensen, and Rommedahl were subject to criticism in recent weeks, a hole host of domestic talent gave themselves a shot at being on the plane to South Africa.

First half

After defeat to Hungary in Copenhagen and a disappointing stalemate with South Korea, Denmark were on a mission to get a favorable result against the Americans and they started brightly.

Former Chelsea winger Jesper Grønkjær passed up a fantastic chance to give Denmark the lead, in only the second minute, when he woefully missed from close range.

However, that was pretty much as good as it got for the Danes in the first half as USA started controlling proceedings and knocking the ball around smoothly, much to the irritation of Coach Olsen. 

Things took a turn for the worse when, the usually trusty, Sørensen miss-kicked the ball straight to Jeffrey Cunningham, who said thank you very much by putting the Americans 1-0 up.

It went from bad to worse when local lad Morten "Duncan" Rasmussen, went off injured and was replaced by his club teammate Martin Bernburg.

Nonetheless, the Danes held on till half time with the score only 1-0. The commentators described it the worst half of football they had witnessed from the national side and a strong teamtalk was expected at half time..

Second Half

Olsen didn't just leave it at that and he made three halftime changes. He replaced first team regulars Poulsen, Grønkjær and Jensen with the unknown prospects of William Kvist (24), Johan Absalonsen (23) and Søren Rieks (22), who before the night had nine caps between them, with latter two only having one cap each to their name. 

The changes immediately paid dividens as Absalonsen [pictured] equalised in 47th min after latching onto a sublime, over-the-top ball from Kjær. Absalonsen was again in the thick of the action as he turned supplier and with a lovely cross found fellow substitue Rieks to make 2-1 in 52nd minute. 

On 54 minutes, the match was over as another substitute, albeit an earlier one, Bernburg scored to make it 3-1.

Now that the Danes were firmly in the comfort zone, they began playing the sort of football we've come to expect from them.

Reaction

"Scoring for your country is a crazy feeling. I was a little nervous before coming because the team hadn't really performed well and the coach threw us in, hoping we would change the match. That is a big responsebility but we did it and I'm extremely proud", said the goal scorer Absalonsen.

Meanwhile, Olsen praised the domestic talent that was on show tonight.

"Things weren't going so well in the first half and I decided to give the lads a chance to showcase what they could on the international stage and I couldn't have asked for a better response.

"It just shows that there is whole host undiscovered home-grown talent, who are just waiting for their opportunity. Some of them got it tonight and they didn't disappoint", he said.

Denmark 3-1 USA (0-1)

Goals: 0-1 Jeffrey Cunningham (26.), 1-1 Johan Absalonsen (47.), 2-1 Søren Rieks (52.), 3-1 Martin Bernburg (54.)

Denmark (4-3-3): Thomas Sørensen, Lars Jacobsen, Simon Kjær, Per Krøldrup, Michael Lumb - Christian Poulsen (Søren Rieks, 46), Martin Jørgensen (Jesper Bech, 79.), Daniel Jensen (William Kvist, 46.) - Jakob Poulsen, Morten 'Duncan' Rasmussen' (Martin Bernburg, 35.) (Thomas Enevoldsen, 89.), Jesper Grønkjær (Johan Absalonsen, 46.)

USA (4-4-2): Brad Guzan - Jonathan Spector (Clarence Goodson, 69.), Carlos Bocanegra, Frankie Hejduk, Jonathan Bornstein - Stuart Holden (Castillo, 61.), Benny Feilhaber, Michael Bradley (Rogers, 61.), Ricardo Clark - Jozy Altidore, Jeffrey Cunningham (Eddie Johnson, 61.)